Collaborate For Success
The beauty and challenge of collaboration
Collaboration is about people working together.
The real success stories of our time are about good collaboration: businesses, sports teams, political campaigns, causes…
And yet, its not easy working together, or else there would be more collaborative success stories out there! Developing the collaborative habit takes a while.
How this blog can help you collaborate better?
Working together actually starts with oneself, with your attitude, and then doing those things that are both good for you, and the other(s).
How we relate to each other, our relationships, is at the core of our capacity to work well together, i.e., to collaborate. You’ll find lots of content on this blog about relationships, both to better understand yourself, and to relate to others.
In an organization, leaders play a vital role. They hugely influence the culture of collaboration, within their organization.
In early 2010, I published an e-book about what makes for good collaboration. I called it “Collaborative Maxims: Principles for Working in an Organization”. It speaks to what makes for collaborative relationships, and collaborative leadership. You can download a copy, here. It’s free. Use it. Share it. It’s my baseline for what collaboration is/should be. Most of the ideas in that book where first hashed out in this blog.
Since Collaborative Maxims, I’ve been exploring more ways to collaborate. I especially look for things I can share on this blog about collaborating for public good. Ways to work together and bridge our differences, reduce the gap, create collaborative solutions that benefit many.
I approach the topic from many different angles. I draw on my experiences, and from experts in collaboration, local and afar, that I’ve gotten to know, and try share their wisdom on this blog.
I hope you find some good stuff here, and that you can apply in your own work and personal life.
Need help making a collaborative project happen?
As a collaboration consultant, I help individuals and organizations work together to find solutions:
- Project coordination. I assist project sponsors with project planning and monitoring.
- Needs analysis. I help stakeholders identify, organize, and prioritize their needs.
- Building consensus. I facilitate conversations that help people bridge interests, and find common ground.
- Agreement writing. I work with all parties to create a “results oriented” agreement, as a roadmap for moving forward, together.
- Virtual facilitation. I facilitate virtual project teams of problem-solvers.
And, here are some of the organizations I’ve worked with.
If you want to know more about how I can help you, contact me.
